Judge finds man guilty of violent sex assault

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic material that may not be suitable for all readers.

A West Kelowna man has been found guilty of violently raping a woman and threatening to kill her.

Jeremy Czechowski was charged with sexual assault, unlawful confinement, attempting to choke or overcome resistance and uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm.

On Feb. 20, 2016, a Kelowna woman went out drinking with a friend at a local nightclub. The two of them consumed alcohol and cocaine, a Kelowna court heard.

After leaving the club around 1:30 a.m. the morning of Feb. 21, the two women were driven to a home in West Kelowna. It was the home of Czechowski, whom the two women did not know before that night.

The victim intended to get drugs from the accused and said she wanted to stay in the car.

She testified Czechowski told her she had to come inside.

She told the court he ripped off her underwear in the kitchen and took her purse, containing her identification and her cellphone.

The woman told Czechowski she was not going to have sex with him and followed him upstairs to retrieve her purse.

Once inside the master bedroom, the woman said, he pulled off her dress, pushed her down and forced her to have sex.

She said Czechowski threatened to bury her in the backyard, and later that morning she told police she thought he was going to kill her.

Over the next two hours, the woman said there were several incidents of forced sex and multiple instances of Czechowski choking her to the point she thought she was going to pass out.

The woman’s friend had left the residence in that time, and she and her mother both called the police about a possible sexual assault.

The police called the victim on her cellphone at 6:34 a.m. At the time, she was hiding in the bushes at a neighbour’s house and said she was too afraid to go look at a street sign to see where she was.

Eventually, she was able to give information about where she was, and the police came looking for her.

She spotted a police car, got inside and was taken to the hospital.

The police officer who picked her up described her as appearing dishevelled and terrified.

A doctor on the sexual assault response team at Kelowna General Hospital testified about the injuries observed on the victim that morning, including a small goose egg on her scalp, significant throat and jaw pain, pain in the base of her skull and neck, severe rectal pain, bruising under her jaw, lower neck, arms, elbow, wrist, knees and shins, scratches across her chest, hands and wrists, and cuts on her knee.

The doctor noted a significant amount of force had to be applied to the victim’s neck to cause that amount of bruising.

In the trial, Czechowski argued the woman had jumped into his lap when she entered his house and that the sex was consensual.

He said he did not threaten her and that she was extremely drunk, was not acting normal and appeared to be going in and out of a state of psychosis.

Justice Kenneth Ball said he rejected the assertion the woman had consented to have sexual relations of any kind with Czechowski.

The evidence of the victim and the physical evidence from the doctor “proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused intentionally applied force to the complainant,” Ball said in court Wednesday. “The court also finds that the accused intended to inflict bodily harm on (the victim) in order to achieve sexual gratification.”

He found Czechowski guilty on all four counts.

Crown prosecutor Angela Ross requested a pre-sentence report prior to sentencing. She also requested the report contain a psychological component for risk assessment of Czechowski.

The lawyers will reconvene July 16 to check the status of the report.